VNJE & Per Zanussi to Portugal

Seixal Jazz Festival, Lisbon
October 19, 2023 22:00

Festival Jazz Ao Centro, Coimbra
October 20, 2023 22:00

Casa da Musica, Porto
October 21, 2023 21:00

"Li and the Infinite Game" for Vestnorsk Jazzensemble mixes Per Zanussi's different musical interests into a beautiful, energetic and rhythmic journey through 10 different musical landscapes.

In recent years, Zanussi's music for larger ensembles has focused on composing for improvisers who engage in rather free improvisation, where the sound has led the mind towards contemporary music. In this work for VNJE, some of this is still found, but also inspiration from futuristic funk, prog-Afrobeat, Korean shaman ballads and North African free jazz.

"Li" in the title alludes to the Chinese name for patterns in nature, which has long been an inspiration for Zanussi's music: fixed and dynamic patterns, patterns in both time and space, cyclical, asymmetrical and orderly at the same time. Clouds, trees, dunes, flow and chaos.

The last part of the title, "The Infinite Game", is about the other important aspect of the piece, namely the relationship with the musicians from Bergen and Stavanger who meet and give life to the compositions. In meeting each other, we set up an "infinite game" where the goal is not to win, but to be able to continue the game.